Hwang Dong-Hyuk, creator of 'The Squid Game': "I'm not that rich, Netflix didn't pay me any bonuses"

• STUART JEFFRIES

  Corriere della Sera

Updated Monday, November 222021-11: 24

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• Series The keys to the success of the creator of The Squid Game: blood in a child environment and risking his life for money

"I wanted to convey a message about modern capitalism, not just South Korea," says Hwang Dong-Hyuk, creator of Netflix's most-watched series.

And it reveals the personal drama behind it.

In his Seoul office,

bursts out laughing.

Simply because I ask the writer and director of The Squid Game, the most watched series in Netflix history, if his surprising success has made him rich.

In this dystopian drama, a mysterious organization challenges 456 players - all heavily in debt - to compete in children's games.

The winner goes home with 33 million euros [45.6 billion won].

The loser, with a bullet.

Perhaps Hwang is already as rich as his luckiest player?

Enough to have food on the table.

And Netflix didn't pay me any bonuses.

He paid me what was established in the original contract ».

That seems unfair. After all, this 50-year-old South Korean has made hundreds of millions for his backers. According to rumors circulating, this nine-episode fiction

. The benefits obtained are being stratospheric. The series, which according to Netflix has been viewed by 142 million households and has convinced another 4.4 million to subscribe, has made a

for the platform.

Perhaps Hwang should have negotiated a benefit clause, if only because creating and making the script put him under such great stress that he lost six teeth.

“

.

I would come up with new ideas and review the episodes during filming, which multiplied the workload even more.

The idea for The Squid Game came from a Hwang family experience in 2009, in the midst of a crisis.

“I found myself in a desperate situation, because my mother retired.

I was working on a movie and couldn't find funding.

.

And Hwang looked for some distraction in Seoul's comic-book cafes. «I read

and other comics about survival games. I recognized myself in his characters, driven to despair and hungry for money. At that moment I hit rock bottom.

I realized that, as a director, I could put my personal touch on these kinds of stories, and I started working on the script.

Hwang was inspired by a version of the game he played as a child, the squid game, because the pieces of the cephalopod anatomy are designed on the board.

"He was very good at fighting for the squid's head," he says.

In the first episode, the 456 hopefuls can only move when a mechanized puppet looks away.

Those who move are riddled with a machine gun.

Why did Hwang create such a brutal and heinous competition?

"Because the idea of ​​the series is very simple," he explains.

"We are all fighting for our lives in a reality based on inequality."

Is it a tough case against capitalism? There is nothing metaphysical in the game! I am convinced that the world economic order is based on inequality and that 90% of human beings share it. During the pandemic, poor countries were unable to vaccinate their populations. People fell ill and died in the streets. So in that sense, yes, I did try to convey a message about capitalism. Don't you see a contradiction in that without Netflix money your criticism of capitalism would not exist? [Laughs] It's true that Netflix is ​​a multinational, but I don't think it contributes to exacerbating injustices in the world. There is no contradiction. While working on this project, my goal was to finish at the top of the Netflix charts in the United States for at least one day. Later,The Squid Game ended up being the most watched series in its history. I was surprised, but it shows that the global audience shares my message. Did you watch The Bridgertons to study the competition? I find it difficult to watch any series in its entirety. So far, there are only two that I have followed to the end:

and

. Anyway, I heard

were great and I only saw half a chapter. I am not interested in romantic stories: it has been six or seven years since my last relationship. Maybe that's why my sex scenes are so depressing with two players, one a macho gangster, having sex in the bathroom. There is no love in The Squid Game, is there? There is! But it is an unusual and desperate situation. The woman leans on the stronger man. You have to find something to hold onto. She is convinced that it is love, otherwise it would be too sad to offer sex to that man just for survival.

Hwang confesses that he wrote this scene after watching a

with contestants on a desert island.

“It is about observing the psychology of people in extreme situations.

. '

But then women are sex objects?

For the first time, the smile disappears.

he replies, annoyed.

And he explains that his objective was "to show that, regardless of gender, men and women are willing to desperate actions, when faced with extreme situations."

But

is not just a portrait of your country.

"My goal was to create something that resonates not only with Koreans, but with the world."

In this life and death struggle, social norms are swept away, while the contestants are plunged into a war of all against all, in which human life is tragic, brutal and ephemeral.

Some viewers found the closing disappointing, including LeBron James.

«I respect their opinions, but I would not change my ending.

.

Hwang's ending cleverly hints at a sequel with the winner set to take on the organization.

But Netflix has yet to announce anything and Hwang doesn't know if there will be a second season.

"There are inevitable rumors of success, but I have a movie in mind ... I

."

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